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VIl\DICATI©IV 



GENERAL. >VASHINGTON 

( 

. FROM THE STIGMA OF ADHERENCE TO "'' *^' 



JOSEPH RITMER, 

GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

C03I3IUNICATED 

BY 

REQUEST OF THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, TO THAT BODY, 

ON THE 8th op march, 1837, 

WITH 

THE PROCEEDINGS WHICH TOOK PLACE 
ON ITS RECEPTION. 

TOGETHER WITH 

A LETTER TO DANIEL WEBSTER, 

AND HIS 

REPLY. 



JSoston: 
PRINTED Br EZRA LINCOLN. 



1841. 



/ 



> 



-'7 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 



The annexed pamphlet by Ex-Governor Ritner of Pennsyl- 
vania is, strange as the fact may appear, a vindication of the 
character of tlie father of his cuiintry against the charge of 
Freemasonry ! That Washington was an initiate we do not 
doubt, as many other respectable individuals have been, among 
whom may be numbered a Marshall, a Rush, a Wirt and 
others ; for it has been the policy of the detestable, murderous 
society to seduce into their ranks the most respectable mem- 
bers of society and then to bind them to the most shocking, 
anti-christian oaths and under the still more shocking penal- 
ties of death, in various horrid forms, to keep the secrets of 
the institution, which chiefly consists, like a band of pirates 
and robbers, of the signs by which they may be known to each 
other ! It is hardly necessary to add that of 100 initiates 99 
though bound by their oaths to silence, have little more to do 
with the institution, although claimed as a member and 
" brother." Such were " brother Washington," " brother 
Judge Marshall" and a great number of others, who have been 
hypocritically brought within tlie pale of Freemasonry." But 
Washington did not die witliout leaving to his country his 
warnins; voice asaiust " all obstructions to the execution of 
the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever 
plausible character. He might, we repeat, have been an 
initiate, but no freemason, as the reader of the annexed pam- 
phlet will see. That Freemasonry " obstructed the execution 
of the Laws" in the trial of Masonic culprits in the western 
counties of "Sew York state by false oaths and every other 
possible way, there is the most unequivocal evidence. In a 
word, says the late Myron Hnlley, speaking of Freemasonry, 
" more detestable principles cannot be imagined; they excite 
to crime and were intended for shelter and protection of prac- 
tical iniquity !" This was literally a truth, they truly afforded 
shelter and protection to the murderers of William Morgan ! 
But if as the memorable wretches tell you, that Freemasonry 
is a virtuous society it is asked why females or ladies are ex- 



IV 

eluded, — wiiy insulted f Who can read the following oatli 
ot a Master Mason, having a mother, wife, or sisters without 
the height of indignation. " Furthermore" (that is in addition 
to lil'teen otiier oatiis) " do I promise and swear, tliat I will 
not be at tiie initiating, passing or raising of an old man in 
dotage, a young man in non-age, an atheist, irreligious liber- 
tine, madman, hermaphrodite, woman or a fool." And again, 
"furthermore do I promise and swear that I will not violate 
the ciiastity of a Master Mason's wife, mother, sister or 
daughter, nor suffer it to be done brothers, if in my power to 
prevent it, I knowing them to he S2ich" thus giving a Mas- 
ter Mason free access to every other woman in society. — Such 
is freemasonry and but a small part of tlip.t diabolical institu- 
tion. Wasiiington saw not only the folly but the wickedness 
of such oaths and the consequence that might follow frotn an 
institution of such a character. — And now (1841) would it be 
believed an effort is making by despicable or thoughtless in- 
dividuals to revive it ! Let us then, one and all, frown on the 
base attempt; let the warning voice of the father of his coun- 
try be listened to and obeyed ; let not a vestige remain of the 
accursed institution. In a more especial manner, let that 
degrading and disgraceful silver plate, which now lies under 
the corner stone of the Bunker Hill Monument,* be removed 
and the place supplied by some Fatriotie Inscription. 

* It is one of the Masonic deceptions in permitting the public to 
believe that the corner stone was laid by La Fayette, whereas he 
was only a spectator. It is engraven on the plate thus " On the 17th 
day of June, 182f), at the re(|uest of the Bunker Hill Moniinjent As- 
sociation the Most WorshipfulJohn Abbott, Grand Master of Masons 
in Massachusetts, did in presence of General Ija Fayette lay this cor- 
ner stone of a monument," &c. A falsehood like this is engraved on 
the plate deposited \mder the corner stone of the Masonic Temple 
in Boston. It is declared thereon that the Governor of the Common- 
wealth and the Mayor of the city were present at the laying of it. 
This being doubted an Antimason addressed a lino to each of them, 
inquiring as to the truth of the statement. Levi Lincoln, the Gov- 
ernor and Harrison Gray Otis, the Mayor, both answered that they 
were not present nor invited to be present. The former said also 
that he knew nothing about the ceremony, until he saw the account 
of it in a newspaper at \Vorccstcr, the place of his residence. 



OF 

GENERAL. ^WASMINC^T* 



Extract from the Journal of the House of Repre- 
sentatives — vol. 1, page 276. 

January 20, 1837. — " The Speaker laid before the House 
a memorial from sundry citizens of Union county, complain- 
ing of certain inferences in relation to the masonic and other 
secret societies, drawn by the Governor in his annual message 
to the Legislature, from the writings of Washington, and 
praying for the appointment of a committee to wait upon the 
Governor, for the purpose of ascertaining and reporting how 
far General Washington's Farewell Address, and other writ- 
ings, sustained the said inferences." 
Which was read, as follows : 

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives 
in General Assembly met, we, the undersigned, citizens of 
Pennsylvania, beg leave most respectfully to represent : — 
That the Governor of Pennsylvania, in his annual message 
to both branches of the Legislature, hatli been wont to say on 
the subject of Freemasonry, it was a spirit of lawless combi- 
nation, unkno\vn to our open and equaj institutions and op- 
posed to the genius of republicanism, against which the 
Father of his country sent forth his last and most solemn 
learning. Tlie Governor here has' reference to General 
Washington's Farewell Address, when lie is made to say, 
" Beware of Secret Societies." The foregoing inference is 
slandering the ashes of the patriotic and forever beloved 
dead — it is defamatory to the lips of tliat chaste and holy 
man, whose whole life, with a sir.gle eye, was devoted to his 
country's good. Well may we say, he was a compound of 
righteousness, fitted by God as the special organ ot liberty, 



8 

wiitiD^s of Washington, ami praying for the appointment of a 
committee to wait upon Ilis EKceilenry, for the purpose of as- 
certaining anil reporting how far General Washington's Fare- 
well Address, and other writings, sustain the same references 
RKPOH T : 

That on the day succeeding their appointment, they ad- 
dressed a letter to His Excellency the Governor, a copy of 
which is herewith subjoined, marked A, to wliich the answer, 
marked B, which is also subjoined, was shortly after returned. 
In conformity with the intimation therein contained, " that he 
would embrace the earliest occasion of leisure from other du- 
ties, to place the subject before them in the light which its im- 
portance seemed to hira to demand," the Governor, a lew days 
since, transmitted to your committee the evidences of his au- 
thority in using the language complained of in his late message, 
in the communication marked C, hereunto annexed, which, 
together with this report, is respectfully submitted to the con- 
sideration of the House, without further comment. 



A. 

Representative Chamber, ? 
Harrisburg, January 21, 1837.5 
Dear Sir : 

Yesterday morning the Speaker presented a memorial to 
the House of Representatives, signed by a few citi/.ens of 
Pennsylvania, praving for tlie appointment of a committee on 
the part of that body, " to wait on His Excellency the Gover- 
nor of Pennsylvania, and solicit Irom him the source of infor- 
mation from which he derived his authority, as quoted in his 
late message to the House, as to the Father of his Country's 
last and solemn warning against ' that spirit of lawless combi- 
nation unknown to our open and eijual institutions, and op- 
posed to the genius of rcpublicanisin,' and report the same, 
with such references to General Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress, and other writings, as may place his words or allusions 
to Freemasonry beyond the reach of doubt or cavil." 

In compliance with the prayer of the petitioners, the under- 
signed were appointed a committee for the purpose expressed 
in the said memorial, and in the performance of the duty thus 
assigned them, they herewith submit to your Excellency the 
above extract from the same, as presented to the House. In 



it you will find embodied all that for whicli the memonalists 
most earnestly pray, and which we most respectfully submit 
to your Excellency's consideration, for such action as you may 
think proper to take upon the subject. 

With the higiiest respect, we are, Sir, 
Your most ob't servants, 

GEORGE FORD, Jr. 
WILLIAM ENGLISH, 
WILLIAM GARRETSON, 
HENRY STARK, 
O. S. DIMMICK. 
His Excellency Joseph Ritner, 
Governor of Pennsylvania. 



B. 

Executive Chamber, > 

Harrisburg, January 23, 1 837. \ 
Gentlemen : 

I this day received your letter of the 2Ist instant, inform- 
ing me that you have been appointed a committee on behalf 
of the House of Representatives, to obtain from me tiie au- 
thority on which, in my annual message to the Legislature, I 
asserted that General Washington had sent forth his last and 
most solemn warning against " that spirit of lawless combina- 
tion unknown to our open and equal institutions, and opposed 
to the genius of republicanism," which has acquired such in- 
fluence in our days. 

It will afford me much pleasure to comply with the request 
of the House of Representatives, tiius made, through their 
committee. I shall embrace the earliest occasion oi leisure 
from other duties to place the subject before them in the light 
which its importance seems to me to demand. 
I am, Gentlemen, 

Very respectfully, 

Your fellow-citizen, 

JOS. RITNER. 
Messrs. George Ford, Jr. 
William English, 
William Garretson, 
Henry Stark, 
O. S. Dimmick, 
2 



10 



c. 

Executive Chamber, "> 
Harrisburg, March 8, 1837.5 
Gentlemen : 

The annual Message to the Legislature, of December 6th, 
1836, declares: — 

That the cliief evil of the times is " that spirit of lawless 
combination unknown to our open and equal institutions, and 
opposed to the genius of republicanism, against which the 
Father of his Country sent forth his last and most solemn 
warning." 

That " what was comparatively restricted and harmless in 
his day, has since assumed the dangerous character of regu- 
larly organized, oath bound, secret working, wide spread and 
powerful societies." 

And that " of these, some bearing more and some less of 
the features just enumerated, the Society of Freemasonry is 
the fruitful mother." 

These opinions and statements of the message, have occa- 
sioned your appointment as a Committee by the House of 
Representatives, " to wait on the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
to solicit from him the source of information from wliich he 
derived his authority as quoted in his last message to the 
House, as to the Father of our Country's last and solemn 
warning against ' that spirit of lawless combination, unknown 
to our open and equal institutions, and opposed to the genius 
of republicanism,' — and report the same with such references 
to General Wasliington's Farewell Address and other writ- 
ings, as may place his words or allusions to Freemasonry be- 
yond tiie reach of doubt or cavil." 

No occurrence of my life ever afforded me greater pleasure 
than that of being called upon olTicialiy, to vindicate the 
memory of Washington from the stigma of adherence to se- 
cret combinations. 



11 

His name is so deservedly dear, and his example so pow- 
erful among the people of this nation, that the wide trumpet- 
ed misfortune of his unthinking youth, in becoming a Free- 
mason, has tended more to fasten upon us the evils of that 
society than all the jealous spirit of equality — the aroused 
power of the press — or the cry from the ground of spilled 
blood, has hitherto been sufficient to overcome. Even the 
practical renunciation of the last thirty-one years of his life, 
and his latest and most solemn precepts on the subject of 
lawless combinations, have failed to atone for his early indis- 
cretion, or to remove the danger ; and with Franklin, Lafay- 
ette and many others, he, the chosen one of freedom — the foe 
of kings and the leader of the armies of Independence, is 
claimed to have passed down to the grave, the obedient ser- 
vant of a skulking monarchy, and the sworn thrall of princi- 
ples at war with the open practices of his whole glorious life. 

If it be true as the lamented Golden, (himself one of the 
initiated,) declared, that many a viason became a great man, 
but no great man ever became a mason, how nearly does it 
concern the youth of our country, from among whom their 
own merits must elect her future great men, to pause and re- 
flect before they commit their present standing and future 
reputation, to the keeping of a society, which, for its own cold 
hearted and selfish purposes could immolate even the fame of 
■Washington at the shrine of its abominations. From the 
same flowers that bestow honey on the bee, and shed fra- 
grance on the air, it is said the wasp extracts poison. Thus 
the name of Washington, which has become the watchword of 
liberty and of national independence over the world, is de- 
graded into the office of a masonic gull-trap at home. 

Each votary of the order, when pressed by the weight of 
reason, so easily brought to bear against him by the weakest 
advocate of democratic equality, answers every objection, by 
repeating the name of " GRAND MASTEr" WASHING- 
TON." 



12 

Newspaper editors seem to have in stereotype, as a stand- 
ing answer to all arguments, and a spell to ciiarm down all 
charges against the cral't, the names of Washington, Frank- 
lin and Lafaijette. 

Masonic orators, from the declaimer of a bar room meeting, 
to the masonic occupant of the sacred desk, and the legislative 
seat, alike conclude their discourses with the names of Wash- 
ington, and the other heroes and sages of the Revolution. 

Not only do masons thus in general terms, claim the au- 
thority of his name, but they even designate with particulari- 
ty, the masonic offices he held — the lodges over which he 
presided, and the continuance and degree of his devotion to 
the order ; nay, some of them go so far as to shew the very 
" attire which he often wore as a mason," and the mallet 
which he used as Master. 

The Hon. Timothy Bigelow of Massachusetts, in an oration 
delivered at the funeral obsequies solemnized in honor of 
General Washington's memory, by the Grand Lodge of that 
State, on the 11th of February, 1800, made use of tlie follow- 
ing language : — " He (Washington) cultivated our art with 
sedulous attention, and never lost an opportunity of advanc- 
ing the interests or promoting the honor of the craft." — « The 
information received from ourbretliren who had the happiness 
of being members of the lodge over which he presided many 
yeari, and of which he died the Master, furnish abundant 
proof of his persevering zeal for the prosperity of tlie insti- 
tution. Constant and punctual in his attendance, scrupulous 
in his observance of the regulations of the Lodge, and solici- 
tous at all times to communicate light and instruction, he dis- 
charged the duties of the ciiair with uncommon dignity and 
intelligence in all the mysteries of our art. We see before us 
the very attire which he of tan ivore as a mason." 

The American edition of Preston's Masonry, asserts that 
" tlie society of Freemasons, in America, continued to flourish 



13 

under the auspices of General Washington, who continued 
his patronage to the Lodges until his death." 

Masonry has published a letter from him to King David's 
Lodge of Newport, R. (. without date, but said to be written 
in August, 1790, in which he is made to say, " I shall always 
be happy to advance the interests of the society, and to be 
considered by them as a deserving brother." 

Four other letters, purporting to be from him, have also 
been published by masons, all without dates ; one to the 
Grand Lodge of Charlestovvn, two to the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts, and one to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, 
all lauding the institution. 

Andrew Jackson, late President of the United States, when 
invited in March, 1830, by a body of masons, to join in a ma- 
sonic pilgrimage to the tomb of the Father of his Country, 
thus replied : " The memory of that illustrious Grand Mas- 
ter, [Washington,] cannot receive a more appropriate honor 
than that which religion and masonry pay it, when they send 
their votaries to his tomb, fresh from the performance of acts 
which THEY consecrate." 

General Tallmadge, of New York, asserted in a letter pub- 
lished in the winter of 1831-2, " that Washington had often 
presided in Poughkeepsie Lodge." 

Having thus-stated both the general and particular claims 
of masonry upon the name and fame of Washington, I shall 
proceed to disprove them. 

As to Washington's early masonry, the following incident 
will be sufficient : 

In 1830, the Rev. Ezra Styles Ely, D. D. editor of a relig- 
ious newspaper, called the Philadelphian,was charged in some 
of the prints of the day, with being a mason. In an editorial 
article on the subject, contained in the number of that paper 
dated July 23, 1830, he relates the following important anec- 
dote : 



14 

" In reply to all this, I would assert, that I never was a 
mason, and never expect to be. Hitherto I have neither ad- 
vocated nor opposed masonry, unless it be in tlie relation of 
a conversation which passed between General Washington 
and Governor Jonathan Trumbull, the second, which the lat- 
ter more than once repeated to my father. The latter, when 
aid-de-camp to the former, asked him if he would advise him 
to become a mason." — General Washington replied, " that 
masonry was a benevolent institution, which might be employ- 
ed for the best or worst of purposes ; but tliat for the most 
part it was merely child's phnj, and he could not give him 
any advice on the subject." 

On the question of his having been the Master or Grand 
Master of a Lodge, the following proofs will not be disputed. 
The first document is an extract from the records of King 
David's Lodge, in Newport, R. I. the authenticity of wjiich 
has been thus established : 

An action of trover was brought by the officers of St. John's 
Lodge, the successor of King David's Lodge, to recover those 
records from Dr. Benjamin Case, who claimed to be Master 
of the Lodge, in the progress of which they were proved to be 
the original records, and Dr. Case was ordered to restore 
them to St. John's Lodge, or pay S300 damages. Tlie money 
was paid, and the records retained for the good of the coun- 
try. This is the extract : 

" Regular Lodge night, held at the house of Mr. James Tew, 
Wednesday evening, the 7th February, 1781 — 5781." 

" A motion was made, that as our worthy brother. His Ex- 
cellency General Washington, was daily expected amongst 
us, a committee should be appointed to prepare an address, 
on behalf of tiie Lodge, to present to him. Voted that the 
Right Worshipful Master, together with brother Seixas, Pe- 
Icg Clark, John Handy, and Robert Eliott, be a committee for 
that purpose, and that they present the same to this Lodge, 
at their next meeting, for tlieir approbation." 



15 

" At a Lodge, held by request of the Right Worshipful 
Master. February 14th, 1781—5781." 

" The committee appointed to draft an address to our wor- 
thy Brother, His Excellency General Washington, report, 
that on enquiry they find General Washington not to be 
Grand Master of JVorth Jlmerica, as was supposed, nor even 
Master of any particular Lodge. They are therefore of 
opinion, that this Lodge would not choose to address him as 
a private brother, — at the same time, think it would not be 
agreeable to our worthy brother to be addressed as SUCH." 

" Voted that the report of the committee be received, and 
that the address be entirely laid aside for the present." 

The other document is a reply by Washington, to a letter 
he had received from the Rev. G. W. Snyder, of Frederick- 
town, Maryland, on the danger to be apprehended from the 
spread of Illuminism and Jacobinism in this country. The 
letter, in which was the following passage, " upon serious re- 
flection, I was led to think that it might be within your power 
to prevent the horrid plan from corrupting the brethren of 
the English Lodges over which you preside," was accompa- 
nied with a copy of " Robinson's proofs of a Conspiracy" for 
the General's use. 

"Mount Vernon, 25th September, 1798. 
"The Rev. Mr. Snyder, 

" Sir, — Many apologies are due to you for my not acknowl- 
edging the receipt of your obliging favor of the 2i2d ult. and 
for not thanking you, at an earlier peiiod, for the book you 
had the goodness to send me. 

" I have heard much of the nefarious and dangerous plan 
and doctrines of the Illuminati, but never saw the book until 
you were pleased to send it to me. The same causes which 
have prevented my acknowledging the receipt of your letter, 
have prevented my reading the book hitherto ; namely, the 
multiplicity of matters which pressed upon me before, and the 
debilitated state in which I was left, after a severe fever had 
been removed, and which allows me to add little more now 
than thanks for your kind wishes and favorable sentiments. 



16 

except to correct an error you have run into, of my presid- 
ing over the English Lodges in this country. The fact is 
I preside over none, nor have I been in one more than once 
or twice ivithin the last thirty years. I believe, notwith- 
standing, that none of the Lodges in this country are contam- 
inated with the principles ascribed to the society of tlie Ulu- 
minati. 

" With respect, I am, Sir, 

" Your ob't humble servant, 

•' GEO. WASHINGTON." 

On the 17th of October, in the same year, Mr. Snyder wrote 
a second letter to W"ashington, and received a reply, dated 
October 24tli, pretty much in the same terms. 

The authenticity of tlie correspondence is thus proved : 
" Boston, November 22, 1832. 

" I hereby certify, that I have compared a letter from the 
Rev. G. W. Snyder to General Washington, dated August 
22d, 1798, and two letters from General Washington to Mr. 
Snyder, dated September 25th, and October 24th, of the same 
year, as printed in the " Proceedings of the tljird Antimasonic 
State Convention," with the recorded copies in General 
Wasliington's Letter Books, obtained by me at Mount Ver- 
non, and 1 find tliem printed exactly as there recorded, ex- 
cept Mr. Snyder's letter, in which the word " secret" is 
omitted in one place, and the words " on this terrene spot" 
in another. General Washington's letters to Mr. Snyder are 
exactly printed throughout. 

"JARED SPARKS." 

With respect to the letter said to have been written by him 
to King David's Lodge in 1798, and to the four others, the 
Grand Lodges of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Pennsyl- 
vania, and which are relied on to establish his devotion to 
masonry till his death, it may be remarked : 

1st. That three of them, viz : that to King David's Lodge, 
and the two to tlie Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, are with- 
out date ; a circumstance wholly unprecedented in the whole 
correspondence of the writer, who above all other men, was 
noted for attention to method and form in his writings. 



17 

2d. That thousih General Washington caused to be care- 
fully copied in books kept for that purpose, all his letters on 
every subject, no trace whatever of any of the five letters un- 
der consideration, nor any letters to any other Lodge or Ma- 
sonic body whatever, are to be found among the records of 
his correspondence. 

Sd. That the originals of none of them have been seen out 
of the Lodge in open day, though the officers of at least the 
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, have been publicly called on 
to produce and submit them to the examination of Jared 
Sparks, Esq. who, from his connexion with the Wasliington 
correspondence, is supposed to be best qualified to ascertain 
their authenticity. 

The following letter from Mr. Sparks to the chairman of 
the committee of citizens of Massachusetts, who had called 
on the Grand Lodge to submit the letters to his inspection, is 
decisive on the two last of these points. 

" Boston, February 18, 1833. 

" Sir, — I received this morning your letter of the 15th 
instant, in which you inquire : 

" Ifliether I have ijet seen or had in mij possession any 
original letter or letters, in the hand writing of General 
Washington, addressed to any body of men denominating 
themselves Freemasons. 

" In reply, I can only state that I have seen no letters from 
General Washington of the kind described in yours, nor re- 
ceived any communication on the subject, either verbal or 
written. 

"I am. Sir, 

" Very respectfully, 

" Your ob't servant, 

"JARED SPARKS." 

If corroboration were required, it is furnished by the fol- 
lowing letter from Chief Justice Marshall, in reply to one 
from citizens of Massachusetts, inquiring of him, whether as 
biographer of Washington, he knew of the existence of any 
3 



18 

authentic originals or copies of letters addressed by Wash- 
ington to masonic bodies. The same persons also inquired 
whether the Chief Justice had declared the institution of ma- 
sonry to be " a jewel of the utmost value," &c. &c. 

"Richmond, October 18, 1833. 

" Sir, — Your letter of the 11th, transmitting a resolution 
of the Anfimasonic Convention of the State of Slassaciiusetts, 
passed the 13th of last September, lias just reached me. The 
flattering terms in which that resolution is expressed, claim 
and receive my grateful acknowledgments. 

" The circumstances represented as attending the case of 
Morgan were heard with universal detestation, but produced 
no other excitement in this part of the United States, tlian is 
created by crimes of uncommon atrocity. Their operation on 
masonry, wiiatever it might be, was silent, rather arresting its 
progress and directing attention from the society, than in- 
ducing any open, direct attack upon it. The agitations wliich 
convulse the North, did not pass the Potomac. Consequently, 
an individual so much withdrawn from the world as myself, 
entering so little into the party conflicts of the day, could 
feel no motive, certainly I felt no inclination, to volunteer in 
a distant conflict, in which the wounds that might be received, 
would not be soothed by the consoling reflection that he suf- 
fered in the performance of a necessary duty. I never did 
utter the words ascribed to me, nor any other words import- 
ing the sentiment they convey. I never did say " Freemnsuii- 
ry is a jewel of the utmost value, that the pure in heart and 
life can oiili/ appreciate it full;/, and that in a free govern- 
ment it must, it ivill be sustained and protected." The (act 
mentioned in the resolution, that I have been in a Lodge but 
once, so far as I can recollect, for nearli/ fortif years, is evi- 
dence that 1 have no disposition to volunteer in this contro- 
versy, as the zealous parlizan, which this language would indi- 
cate. In fact I have sought to abstain from it. Although I 
attach no importance to the opinions I may entertain respect- 
ing masonry, yet I ought not to refuse on application, to disa- 
vow any expressions which may be ascribed to me, that I 
never used. I have said that I'always^understood the oaths 
taken by a mason, as being subordinate to his obligations as a 
citizen to the laws, but have never affirmed that there was 
any positive good or ill in the institution itself. 



19 

The resolution also inquires " wiiether, as the friend and 
biographer of Washington, I have in my possession or recol- 
lection, any knowledge of any acts of General Washington, 
or any documents written by hiui to masonic bodies, approv- 
ing of masonry." 

"The papers of General Washington were returned many 
years past, to my lamented friend his nephew, and are now, 
1 believe, in the possession of Air. Sparks. / do not recol- 
lect ever to have heard him utter a syllable on the subject. 
Such a document, however, not being of a character to make 
any impression at the time, may have passed my memory. 
" With great respect, 
" I am. Sir, 

" Your ob't servant, 

"J.MARSHALL." 
To John Bailey, Esq. 
These are the proofs of Washington's views in relation to 
masonry, which can be judicially established, if the House of 
Representatives raise a committee authorized and disposed 
to make the investigation ; if the committee be vested with 
power to send for persons and papers; and if they be sustain- 
ed by tiie House in the exercise of the legitimate authorities 
requisite to a legislative investigation. The conclusion to 
which these proofs lead are : 

1. That in ir68. General Washington had ceased regular 
attendance at the Lodge. Tiiis is proved by his letter to Mr. 
Snyder. 

2. That so far back as about the year ITSO, he had become 
convinced, at least of the inutility of Freemasonry.and called 
it "child's play." This is established by his reply to Gover- 
nor Trumbull. 

S. That on tlie 25th of September, ir98, (one year and 
four months before his death,) his opinions on the subject of 
Freemasonry remained unchanged from what they were tliirty 
years before when he was only thirty-six years old. This is 
established by his letter to Mr. Snyder. 

4. That up to February, 1781, as appears by the records 



20 

of King David's Lodge, and up to the 25th September, 1798, 
as appears by his letter to Mr. Snyder, be had not been 
" Grand Master of North America, nor even Master of any 
particuhir Lodge." 

5. That in 1781, as appears by the same record of King 
David's Lodge, it was not agreeable to him to be addressed 
even as a privute mason. 

6. That all the letters said to be v/ritten by Washington 
to Lodges are spurious. This is rendered nearly certain : 
First, by the non-production of the originals : Second, by the 
absence of copies among the records of his letters : Third, by 
their want of dates : Fourth, by the fact tliat his intimate 
friend and biographer. Chief Justice Marshall, (himself a mason 
in his youth,) says in his letter just given, that he never heard 
Washington utter a syllable on the subject — a matter nearly 
impossible, if Washington had for years been engaged in writ- 
ing laudatory letters to the Grand Lodges of South Carolina, 
Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. 

But placing all these proofs out of view, and trying the 
claims of masonry upon him, merely by his general conduct 
and character, can it be imagined that the republican Wash- 
ington, wiiile engaged in tlie perilous contest of seven years, 
to establish in America a republican government, and secure 
the equal rights of the people against the nobility and monar- 
chy of Great Britain, could favor a body of sworn devotees of 
aristocracy, whose leaders assumed to tliemselves and pro- 
mulged their right to the titles of "Excellent Grand King 
— Most Excellent General Grand High Priest — 
Knight of JIi.demftion — Knight of Christ — Knight ok 
the Mother of Christ — Knight of the Holy Ghost — 
KING OF HEAVEN — Most poiverfitl Sovereign Grand 
Commander and Sovereign Grand Imperator General of tiie 
thirty-third degree I" and the like profane, pompous and ri- 
diculous titles, at the mention of which the imperial titles as- 
sumed by Napoleon and Kurbide, sink into insignificance ? 



21 

Can it be imagined that the virtuous Washington, could 
cherish a society whose members, in some of its degrees, take 
oaths to keep each others secrets, " murder and treason not 
excepted ;" and bind themselves by horrid imprecations, to 
extricate each other from difficulties, " whether they be right 
or wrong ?" 

Can it be imagined that the patriotic Washington, could 
countenance a combination, whose book of constitutions lays 
down the maxim, that although a brother, (one of the band,) be 
a rebel against the State, yet " if convicted of no other crime, 
this cannot expel him from the Lodge, and his relation to it 
remains indefeasible ?" 

Can it be imagined that the religious Washington, could 
foster an order of men who, at their midnight initiation of 
members of the arch Royal Degree, personate the great Jeho- 
vah in the awful scene of the Burning Bush; and who, in 
another degree, mock the most sacred rite of Christianity, by 
drinking wine from a human skull ? 

Would the belief that the republican, virtuous, patriotic 
and religious Washington, could cultivate or cherish such a 
society, be less sacriligious to his memory, than it would be 
shocking to the world, to inflict at this time on iiis sacred re- 
mains, some of the penalties of masonry, on tiiose who re- 
nounce the order — to tear his revered body from Mount Ver- 
non, " to become a prey to wild beasts of tiie field, and vul- 
tures of the air, or bury it in the rough sands of tlie sea, a ca- 
ble-tow's length from tiie shore, at low water mark, where the 
tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours" — or lock it 
up for seven days in an American fortress, under the Ameri- 
can flag, and then plunge it at midnight into the torrent of 
the M iagara ? 

When Washington was a boy and a young man, he acted 
as youths usually do; fond of novelty and induced by curi- 
osity. — But to suppose that in his maturer years, his feelings 



22 

or his judgement were tickled and caught by the baby clothes 
of Masonry, its childish mummeries, and harlequin exhibitions, 
would be any thing else than a manifestation of respect and 
reverence for his character and memory. 

He became a mason when young, and was ignorant of the 
nature and tendency of the order till after he had taken the 
oath to secrecy and fidelity forever. At a later period of life, 
when engaged in the arduous struggle for American liberty, 
experience, reflection and observation, manifested to him the 
full character of Masonry. But if he had then rashly and 
publicly renounced and denounced a society witli whom defa- 
mation is a system, and vengeance is a sworn duty, his repu- 
tation, and perhaps his life, would have been the forfeit. That 
single event might iiave caused the thirteen American pro- 
vinces to remain bound for years at the footstool of the mo- 
narch of Britain. 

Having thus shown from Masonic records ; from his own 
writings ; from the recollections of his contemporaries ; from 
the knowledge of his biographers ; and from his whole life 
and character, the nature of his feelings towards Freemason- 
ry, and also tlie probable reason wliy he did not, at an early 
day, denounce the society, as well as withdraw from it, the 
question may fairly be asked : Did he take no means to guard 
his country from the evils of such combinations ? He did. 
He who never shrunk from danger when its encounter could 
serve his fellow citizens, took the most eftectual means, and 
embraced the most solemn occasion, to place his testimony 
against them on lasting record. In his Farewell Address, of 
September, 1796, we find these warnings, which cannot be 
mistaken. 

" All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combina- 
tions and associations, under whatever plausible character, 
with tlic real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe, the 
regular deliberations and actions of the constituted author!- 



23 

ties, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal 
tendency. Thej serve to organize faction; to give it an ar- 
tificial and extraordinary force ; to put in the place of the 
deles;ated will of the nation, the will of the party, often a 
small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; 
and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, 
to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-con- 
certed and incongruous projects of faction rather than the or- 
gan of consistent and wliolesome plans, digested by common 
councils, and modified by mutual interests." 

" However combinations or associations of the above de- 
scription may now and then answer popular ends, they are 
likely in the course of time and things to become potent en- 
gines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men, 
will be enabled to subvert the povifer of the people, and to 
usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying af- 
terwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust 
dominion." 

It will be perceived that Washington here makes no ex- 
press mention of Freemasonry. It would have been undigni- 
fied in him to have alluded by name to any particular society; 
especially to one whose bloated existence was even then 
marked with its own destruction, although it could count 
back to a bar-room birth in an obscure tavern of London, ia 
the year 17\7, and whose only chance of immortality would 
be such a mention by him, as loathsome insects are sometimes 
found preserved in the purest amber. No. His last testament 
to his country, which will endure as long as liberty shall be 
cherished among men, was not to be marked with the ephe- 
meral name of a society which forms only one of the tempo- 
rary excrescences of the time. Neither his address to Ameri- 
ca was to be thus disgraced, nor masonry thus honored. In 
that address his object was to deal with general and immuta- 
ble truths, and the fundamental principles of our government. 



24 

His remarks on the subject of combinations and associations, 
are therefore applicable to every description of them, past, 
present and to come, whether they be sworn or unsworn, 
foreign or domestic, secret or open. 

Upon a deliberate consideration of all the facts and circum- 
stances which have been detailed and referred to, I believe 
that no impartial and unprejudiced mind will doubt but that 
FREEMASONRY', with all Other combinations calculated to 
" control, counteract or awe, tiie regular deliberations of the 
constituted authorities," was denounced, and was intended to 
be denounced by Washington in his Farewell Address to the 
people of the United States. 

Masonry, with tlie hope of sheltering itself from exposure, 
and averting the certain destruction that awaits it from the 
righteous sentence of the American people, points unceasing- 
ly to the name of the illustrious men who may once have be- 
longed to the order, and for ten years has been ringing the 
change on the names of Washington, Franklin and Lafayette. 
The views of Wasliington can be judged by his actions and 
language just exhibited. Franklin and Lafayette have left 
behind them scarcely less clear and unequivocal evidence of 
their disapprobation of masonry. 

When a number of masons and others, soon after the revo- 
lutionary war, endeavored to establish an order of nobility in 
this country, under the name of the Cincinnati, with the spe- 
cious guise of preserving tlie memory of the deeds of heroism 
to which that glorious time gave birth, the project was crush- 
ed almost in its origin, and the whole scheme rendered su- 
premely ridiculous, in the eyes of American people, by the 
wit, the ridicule, and the argument of Franklin and Jefterson 
— those apostles of liberty and democracy. And when 
Franklin was consulted by a relation on the propriety of his 
becoming a mason, the sage replied with his characteristic hu- 
mor and candor, " one fool in a family is enough." To which 



25 

may be added the remarkable fact, tliat in all his wiitings, 
particularly in liis memoirs of his own life, not a single men- 
tion is made of his connexion with the craft. Every one who 
has read his life, must remember with what exactness every 
occurrence of his varied iiistory is related. Why then is it 
that ;io notice is taken of his masonic membership ? The re- 
ply is prompt. He did not wish posterity to be informed of 
the fact. Had he deemed it an lionor, or the society even 
harmless in its effects, the case would have been different.* 

Wiien the justly popular Lafayette was in this country in 
1804 and '5, masonry, gratified at the circumstance of his 
having become a mason in his youtii, dragged him, in every 
town he visited, to halls and garrets wherever a Lodge could 
be assembled. Yet the contempt in whicli he held masonry, 
and the disgust he felt at the desire of its devotees, to shew 
off their robes and jewelry at the expense of his comfort and 
convenience, were not concealed. They are depicted in the 
following passage from that very candid, elaborate and able 
work, " Letters on Masonry and Antimasonry, addressed to 
John Q. Adams, by William L. Stone of New York," himself 
an adhering mason. 

" This reminds me of a remark made by General Lafayette 
at the time tlie masons were pulling the good old General 
about in this city, striving among each otiier for the honor of 
giving him some of the higher degrees. ' To-morrow,' he said 
• I am to visit the scJiooIs; I am to dine with the Mayor ; 
and in the evening, I suppose, I am to be made very wise 



*In Watson's annals of Philadelphia, page C14 of the octavo edi- 
tion of 1830, is found the description of an outrage attended with 
loss of life, committed under the name of masonry, in wliich it waa 
attempted to implicate Franklin. Me, of course, successfully repelled 
the charge, hut it would be useful to investigate the matter fully, to 
ascertain whetlier his dislike of the order may not then have com- 
menced or have been confirmed. 



26 

6y the Freemasons' I never shall forget the arch look with 
which he uttered the irony." 

If masons be thus free in the use of the names of Franklin 
and Lafayette, although these distinguislied men in reality 
held masonry in derision, it is not surprising that they should 
use the name of Washington in the same manner, and with 
equal injustice, to uphold the tottering fabric of the society. 

Tiie proneness of masons to appropriate to their association 
the character and names of great men, is strikingly exemplifi- 
ed in the fact that some of them have not hesitated, publicly 
to charge the illustrious founders of democracy, Jefferson and 
Madison, with having been masons. Moses Richardson, the 
Grand Treasurer of the Grand Encampment of Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island, at the investigation of masonry held in 
Rhode Island in December 1831 and January 1832, testified, 
that all the Presidents of the United States except two (the 
two Adams's) icere masons. And the Reverend Bernard 
Whitney, the orator at the dedication of what is called a ma- 
sonic temple at Boston, in June 1832, made the same assertion 
on his individual authority. 

The whole of Jefferson's life, devoted to the cause of liber- 
ty and the equal rights of man, and liis zealous and powerful 
exposure in all his writings of all aristocratic combinations 
and associations, are quite sufficient to free his name and 
character from tlie imputation of being a mason. He thus 
writes on privileged societies, in a letter dated April 16, 1784, 
to General Washington, who had requested his opinion on tlie 
subject: 

" The objections of those who are opposed to the institution 
(Cincinnati) sliall be briefly sketched. You will readily fill 
them up. They urge that they are against the confederation — 
against the letter of some of our constitutions — against the 
spirit of all of them : — that the foundation on which all of 
these are built, is the natural equality of man, the denial of 



27 

every pre-eminence but that annexed to legal office, and par- 
ticularly the denial of a pre-eminence by birth. That how- 
ever, in tlieir present dispositions, citizens might decline ac- 
cepting honorary instalments into the order, a time may come 
when a change of dispositions would render these flattering, 
when a well directed distribution of them might draw into the 
order all the men of talents, of office and of wealth, and in 
this case, would probably procure an engraftment into the 
government; that in this they will probably be supported by 
their foreign members, and the wishes and influence of foreign 
courts ; that experience has shewn that the hereditary 
branches of modern governments, are the patrons of privilege 
and prerogative, and not of the natural rights of the people, 
whose oppressors they generally are : that besides these evils, 
which are remote, others may take place more immediately ; 
that a distinction is kept up between the civil and military, 
which it is for the happiness of both to obliterate ; that when 
the members assemble thetj2vill he proposing to do something, 
and what that something may be, icill depend on actual cir- 
cumstances ; that being an organized body, under habits of 
subordination, the first obstruction to enterprise ivill be al- 
ready surmounted ; that the moderation and virtue of a sin- 
gle character, have probably prevented this revolution from 
being closed as most others have been, by a subversion of that 
liberty it was intended to establish ; that he is not immortal, 
and his successor, or some of his successors, may be led by 
false calculations into a less certain road of glory." 

As to Madison, he fortunately lived long enough to leara 
the enormities of masonry, and its aptitude at enrolling 
among its worshippers, tiie names of eminent men who were 
all their lives entire strangers to its principles, its rites, and 
\ts fruits. 

He tlius replied to a friend who informed him of some of 
the doings of the fraternity, and who inquired whether he was 
or ever had been a mason : 



28 

" MoNTPELiER, January 24, 1832. 

''Dear Sii; — I receiveil long ago your interesting favor of 
the 31st October, with the pamphlet referred to, and 1 owe an 
apology for not sooner acknowledging it. I hope it will be a 
satisfactory one, tliat the state of my health, crippled by a se- 
vere rheumatism, restricted my attention to wiiat seemed to 
have immediate claims upon it; and in that light 1 did not 
view the subject of your communication; ignorant as / icas 
of the true character of masonry, and little informed as I was 
of tlie grounds on which its extermination was contended for ; 
and incapable as 1 was a'iid am in my situation of investigat- 
ing the controversy. 

" I never iras a mason, and no one perhaps could be more 
a stranger to the principles, rites, and fruits of the Institution. 
I had never regarded it as dangerous or noxious ; nor, on the 
other hand, as deriving importance from anything puhlichj 
known of it. From the number and character ot those wlio 
noiv support the charges against masonry, / cannot doubt 
that it is at least susceptible of abuses, outweighing any ad- 
vantages promised by its ])atrons. With this apologetic ex- 
planation, 1 tender you, sir, my respectful and cordial saluta- 
tions. 

"JAMES MADISON." 

If masons could thus, in defiance of truth and justice, force 
to the aid of sinking masonry, the popular democratic names 
of Jefferson and JNIadison, who never belonged to the order, 
need we wonder that they should use the reputation of Wash- 
ington witli equal injustice, for the same purpose, merely be- 
cause he had in his youth been a mason ? 

Wheti a man of distinguished merit dies, if at any time he 
had been a mason, althougli he may liave abandoned the 
Lodge the greater part of his life, masons immediately seize 
his name to add to the list of great men that belonged to the 
society, and ever after use it to aliure new dupes to the fra- 
ternity. 

The late Chief Justice Marshall, William Wirt, and Cad- 
wallader D. Coiden, (the friend aad biographer of Fulton,) 
had ail been masons in tlieir youth. If tliey had died before 



29 

the masonic murder of Morgan aroused the attention of the 
people to the tendency and the acts of masonry, they would 
have been enrolled by masons among the great men of the or- 
der, and the public ear would have been deafened with tlie 
chime of JVIarsliall, Wirt and Golden, as it was with the 
changes rung on the names of Washington. Franklin and La- 
fayette. 

But fortunately for truth and liberty, they survived that 
crisis in the progress of our free institutions. Yet attempts 
to appropriate some of them masonically have not been want- 
ing. In August 1833, an eastern paper stated that Judge 
Marshall said " tliat Freemasonry was a jewel of the utmost 
value ; that the pure in heart and life cpuld only appreciate 
it fully — and that in a free government it must, it will be sus- 
tained and protected." This publication was made in Massa- 
chusetts, upwards of five hundred miles from Richmond, 
■where the Judge resided, and he was at that time about 78 
years of age. If he had never heard the assertion, or if hear- 
ins of it he had deemed it too absurd to merit notice, then at 
his death (which in tlie course of nature could not be remote,) 
the publication would have been assumed as true, by every 
Lodge, Chapter and Encampment throughout the United 
States. They would have alleged triumphantly that the sto- 
ry was published in the life time of the Chief Justice, and 
that he never denied its correctness. 

But happily, as is seen from his letter of October 18, 1833, 
before referred to, the publication was seen by him, and most 
explicitly denied, and the important facts added, that he had 
not been in a Lodge but once for forty years, and that he ne- 
ver " affirmed that there was any positive good or ill in the 
institution itself." 

In September 1831, the illustrious and pious Wirt publish- 
ed to the world that he had not been in a Lodge for more than 
. thirty years, and that lie considered masonry " at war with 



30 

the fundamental principles of the social compact, treason 
against society, and a wicked conspiracy against tlie laws of 
God and men, which ought to be put down." 

In May 1829, Golden addressed to a meeting in New 
York, a long, most valuable, and interesting letter on the sub- 
ject of masonry; in which he says, "It is true that I have 
been a mason a great number of years, and that I held very 
high masonic offices and honors. It is e([ually true tliat I have 
for a long time ceased to have any connexion with the insti- 
tution, because, I have believed, and do now believe, it is pro- 
ductive of mucli more evil than good. It is also true that I 
have on no fit occasion hesitated to express tiiis sentiment. I 
have long entertained my present opinion, tiiat a man who 
would eschew all evil should not be a Freemason. — Indeed I 
have never known a great mason who was not a great fool." 

Since the publication of these letters, the sentiments of 
masonry towards Marshall, Wirt and Colden appear to have 
been not a little clianged. No aproned or mitred processions 
accompanied their bodies to the grave : No mallets, crowns, 
compasses and acacia, were displayed at their funerals : No 
masonic orations commemorated the fact that they had ever 
belonged to the order. Their mortal remains were consigned 
to the earth with the dignified simplicity of plain republicans. 

No one can doubt that if AVashington had lived witiiin the 
last few years, his public relation to masonry would not have 
been different from that of Marshall, Colden and Wirt. 

And even before 1799, the period of his decease, if mason- 
ry had ventured to hold him up before the American people 
as a supporter of their order, they would have been spurned 
with indignation. For even so far back as 1780, he called 
masonry " child's play," as has been already shown ; he sub- 
sequently announced to the committee of right worshipfuls of 
KinK David's Lodse, that it ivas not as:rceal)le to him to he 
addressed as a mason: And in 1798, he was prompt and 



31 

most decisive in correcting the erroneous supposition of the 
Reverend Mr. Snyder, that he presided over the Lodges of 
this country : and added, that he presided over no Lodge, and 
had not been in one more than once or twice for thirty years. 
It was not till after death had silenced the lips of Washing- 
ton, that masons dared to trumpet him to the world as a de- 
votee of masonry, and to exliibit the masonic attire and mal- 
lets, and cable-tows, which they pretended he had had in fre- 
quent use, and held in awful veneration. 

I have thus complied with the request of the House, more 
at length than was at first intended, but not more fully than 
the exceeding great importance of the subject seemed to de- 
mand. I cannot, however, dismiss it, without calling on the 
Legislature to adopt the proper measures for removing the 
abomination of Freemasonry from the land. 

Putting aside all other objections, the desecration and in- 
validation of oaths which it inevitably produces, should cause 
a moral and religious people to banish it forever. In the 
words of Washington, to be found in another part of the 
Farewell Address, " Let it simphj be asked, where is the se- 
curity for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of 
religions obligation desert the oaths ivhick are the instru- 
ments of investigation in the courts of justice." 

To this may be added the opinion of our own Snyder, con- 
tained in his annual message of December 5, 1816. " The 
frequency of oaths, and the levity with which they are com- 
monly administered, on occasions trifling and unnecessary, 
beget indifference and irreverence for the most awful appeal 
which the creature can make to his Creator. This has not 
only a most pernicious influence upon the morals and the or- 
der of society generally, but it causes the commission of nu- 
merous injuries by perjury. This abomination in our land, 
it is feared, will increase while oaths are uselessly multiplied, 
and so long as the distinction between merely moral and con- 



32 

stfuctively legal perjuries, shield the perjured against prose- 
cution and deserved punishment." 

If such were tlie opinions of Washington and Snyder on 
the irreverent and unnecessary administration of oaths, at the 
time when tlie masonic penalties attached to them were either 
unknown to the people, or believed not to be intended for ac- 
tual execution, wliat would they not now say, when the judi- 
cial proceedings of the country bear ample record, both of the 
correct revelation of the oaths, and of their literal construc- 
tion in practice, and of the actual infliction of the penalty for 
violation i Disregard of the obligation to " always iiail, ever 
conceal and never reveal," any of the mysteries of Freema- 
sonry, produced the murderous infliction of the proper ma- 
sonic penalty, viz: the destruction of life, (most probably in 
literal accordance with the oath,) and the committal of the 
body to a watery grave. This inhuman outrage in its turn 
brought into action the oath of a higher degree, which binds 
masons to assist each other " whether they be right or wrong," 
under dread, no doubt, of the more fearful penalty annexed. 
And this again accomplished tiiat concealment of " murder" 
by witnesses and that perpetration of " treason" to law and 
justice by peace officers, jurors and judges, wliicli seem to be 
the very perfection of masonry in the arch Royal Degree, the 
conception of whose enormous penalty is disgraceful and hor- 
rible to humanity. Notliing but the absolute fear of the in- 
fliction of such penalties, could for a moment reduce an lion- 
est mind even to silent ac(|uiescence in tlie binding force of 
sue!) unlawful and immoral oaths. These things are not mere 
surmise. 

Whatever may be the proceedings of the Legislature now 
or hereafter, on tlie subject of extra-judicial oaths and secret 
societies, I hope, with the blessings of Providence on my ex- 
ertions, to be able wlien resigning my charge, to join in the 
honest boast of the democratic Findlay, in his last Executive 
Message of December T, 1820, to the Legislature. 



33 

" My public life," said he, " lias no doubt been clouded by 
many errors of the judgement, but in reviewing the numerous 
intrinsic difficulties which pertain to the exercise of an exten- 
sive patronage, and especially when an inordinate avidity for 
power and emolument was so prevalent, I shall always re- 
gard it as a source of high satisfaction, that every attempt on 
the part of ambitious individuals, or secret associations, to 
exercise an unconstitutional control over the executive au- 
thority of the Commonwealth, has been successfully resisted 
during the period those functions have been entrusted to mj 
care." 

I am, Gentlemen, 

Very respectfully. 

Your fellow-citizen, 

JOS. RITNER. 
To Messrs. Ford, 

English, 

Garretson, ^Committee. 

Stark, 

DiMMICK, 



After the reading of the report, a motion was made by Mr. 
Watts, that 5000 copies in the English language, and 3000 
copies in the German language, of the said report, be printed 
for distribution. 

The motion being under consideration, a motion was made 
by Mr. Garretson, to amend the same, by striking therefrom 
"5000," and inserting in lieu thereof "3000," and by striking 
therefrom " 3000," and inserting in lieu thereof" 2000." 

When a motion was made by Mr. Darsie, to amend the 
amendment, by striking therefrom " 3000 copies in the 
5 



34 

English language, anil 2000 copies in the German language," 
and inserting in lieu thereof" the usual number of copies." 

And on the question, will the House agree so to amend the 
amendment ? The yeas and nays were required by Mr. Watts 
and Mr. M'Ilvaine of Philadelphia, and are as follows : 

YEAS — Messrs. Alricks, Beatty of Crawford, Royer, 
Brawler, Cooley, Coplan, Crawford, Curtis, Darsie, Dimock 
of Susquehanna, English, Erdman, Espy, Gilmore, Harmaii, 
Hasson, Hill, Hinkson, Hopkins, Hughes, James, Johnson, 
Leech, Lewellen, Longaker, M'Clelland, M'Curdy, Rambo, 
Reed of Bedford, Reed of Philadelphia, Reynolds of Luzerne, 
Reynolds of Westmoreland, Rheiner, Shearer, Sheet/., Shortz, 
Stark, Sturgeon, Taylor of Lycoming, Tliompson, Woodburn, 
Yearick, Yost, Dewart, Speaker — 45. 

NAYS — Messrs. Beale, Beaty of Mercer, Brooks, Carna- 
han. Chamberlain, Collins, Cunninsham, Diller, Duncan, Et- 
ter, Fegely, Ferguson, Flanagan, Fling, Ford, Frederick, 
Fries, Garretson, Gorgas, Hammer, Harshe, Jackson of Berks, 
A Kauflman, A. L Kauft'iiian, Lehman, M'llvain of Chester, 
M'Ilvaine of the city. Miller, Morton, Mowry, Oliver, Park, 
Parker, Picking, Richardson, Sebring, Smitii, Snyder of Phil- 
adelphia, Spackman, Stevenson, Taylor of Indiana, Trego, 
Tyson, Watts, Weidman — 44. 

So the question was decided in the affirmative. 

And the amendment as amended was agreed to. 

And on tlie question, will the House agree to the motion 
as amended ? The yeas and nays were required by Mr. Reed 
of Piiiladelphia, and Mr. Rheiner, and are as follows — yeas 
62, nays 18. 

So the question was decided in the affirmative. 



35 
LETTER TO DANIEL WEBSTER. 



FiTTSBUKG, Nov. 11, 1835. 
Uon. Daniel JVebster, Boston, Mass. 
Sir, 

The Democratic Antimasons of Allegheny county, by their 
delegates in Convention assembled, have this day appointed 
the undersigned to represent them in a Democratic Antima- 
sonic State Convention, to be holden at Harrisburg on the 
14th day of December next, witli instructions to urge your 
nomination by that body, as a candidate for the office of Pre- 
sident of the United States. 

Your Antimasonic fellow-citizens here have been influenced 
in their decision, not only by the esteem in which they hold 
your character as a statesman, and devoted friend to the Con- 
stitution, but also by the impression which has been made on 
their minds of your entire accordance in opinion with them 
on the subject of secret associations. 

For tlie satisfaction of our political friends in other sections 
of this Commonwealth, we shall be most happy if you will 
enable us to submit to them your opinions respecting tlie or- 
der of Freemasonry ; an institution, whose principles and 
obligations the People of Pennsylvania firmly believe to be 
dangerous to civil liberty, and in contravention to the estab- 
lished rights of American citizens. 

We are, very respectfully, &c. 

H ARM AR DENNY, 
BENJAMIN DARLINGTON, 
JAMES C. GILLELAND, 
NEVILLE 1?. CRAIG, 
W. W. IRWIN, 
Delegates from the County of Allegiieny to the Democratic 
Antimasonic State Convention of Pennsylvania. 



36 
REPLY OF MR. WEBSTER. 



Boston, Nov. 20, 1835. 
Gentlemen, 

I have the honor to acknowledge your favor of the llth 
inst. the receipt of which has been delayed a few days by my 
absence from home. 

Permit me, gentlemen, to express my grateful sense of the 
respect shown me by my fellow-citizens, the members of the 
Convention of Democratic Antimasons of Allegheny county, 
in their recent proceedings, as set forth in your communica- 
tion. The esteem they are pleased to express for my' public 
character, and tlieir confidence in my attachment to the Con- 
stitution of the country, demand my profound acknowledge- 
ments. 

Nor do they do me more than justice, in their belief of my 
entire accordance in their opinion on the subject of Secret 
Societies. You express a wish however that for the gratifica- 
tion of friends in other parts of the State, I should enable you 
to make known my sentiments respecting the order of Free- 
masonry. I have no hesitation, gentlemen, in saying, that 
however unobjectionable may have been the original objects 
of the institution, or however pure may be the motives and 
purposes of individual members, and notwithstanding the 
many great and good men wiio have from time to time belong- 
ed to the Order; y^t, nevertheless, it is an institution which 
in my judgement, is essentially wrong in the principle of its 
formation ; that from its very nature it is liable to great 
abuses ; that among the obligations which are found to be im- 
posed on its members, there are such as are entirely incom- 
patible with the duty of good citizens ; and (hat all Secret 
Jlssuciations, tlie members of which take upon themselves ex- 
traordinary obligations to one another, and are bound together 
by secret oaths, are naturally sources of jealousy and just 



37 

alarm to others ; are especially unfavorable to harmony and 
mutual confidence among men living together under popular 
institutions, and are dangerous to the general cause of civil 
liberty and good government. Under the influence of tiiis 
conviction, it is my opinion that the future administration of 
all such oaths, and the imposition of all such obligations, 
should be -prohibited by law, 

I express these opinions, gentlemen, with the less reserve 
on this occasion, inasmuch as they have been often expressed 
already, not only to some of your own number, and many of 
your friends, but to all others, also, with whom I have at dif- 
times conversed on the subject. 

Of the political principles and conduct of the Antimasons 
of Pennsylvania I have spoken freely in my place in the 
Senate, and under circumstances which took from the occasion 
all just suspicion of any indirect purpose. The opinions tlien 
expressed are unaltered. I have ever found the Antimasons 
of Pennsylvania true to the Constitution, the Union, and to 
the great interests of the country. They have adopted the 
" Supremacy of the Laws," as their leading sentiments ; and 
I know of none more just or more necessary. If there be 
among us any so high, as to be too high for the authority of 
law, or so low as to be too low for its regard and protection, 
or if there bo any, wlio, by any means whatever, may exempt 
themselves from its control, then to that extent we have fail- 
ed to maintain an equal government The supremacy of the 
Constitution and the laws is the very foundation stone of Re- 
publican institutions; if it be shaken or removed from its 
place, the whole system must inevitably totter to its fall. 
Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

To Messrs. Harmar Dennv, -» n i x r ^i l 

T!„.,, n.„,.„ 1„ , t Delegates from the county 

J3ENJ. UARLINGTON, # ^ » ti i ^ ji r. "^ 

T r n,.,^, . I ot AI e";heny to theDemo- 

■v„„,T,^« p„.,^ { cratic Antnnasonic Lon- 
INeville is. Craig, V .. r o , • 

W. W. Irwin, J ^^nt""! of Pennsylvania. 



38 

It has been deemed proper to make a few additional ob- 
servations to tlie foregoing, from the fact of the recent Masonic 
Celebration at Portsmouth, N. H. (June 24, 1841)— a Celebra- 
tion, at which the Rev. (shall we so call him ?) E. M. P. Wells 
officiated as Orator ! — A minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ! 
— What sort of a minister must tins man be ? — Does he not 
know, or does he contemptuously disregard, the command of 
the Being he professes to call Master, who says " Swear not 
at all," — and is not the murderous institution made up of 
oaths, and under the penalty of death for a violation of them ? 
— and did not the death of the patriotic William Morgan, 
and no doubt of others, result from these wicked, antichristian 
oaths? — and this professed minister of the Gospel, it seems, 
becomes a principal actor in the scene of iniquity ! — But let 
us hear what Col. Stone of the New York Commercial says 
of Freemasonry : — and here it is proper to observe that Cot. 
Stone was a high mason, and perfectly acquainted with the 
institution, and whose life was threatened by some masonic 
scoundrel, as may be seen in his 25th letter to the Hon. John 
Q. Adams in page 264 of the volume, to which the reader is 
referred. 

From the 48th and 49th Letters wc give the following ex- 
tracts — but it is necessary to say that our extracts must be 
short. 

" Elder Bernard,* says Col. Stone, " informs us, that five 
" weeks before the outrage [abduction and murder of Morgan] 
" a Baptist clergyman, a Royal Arch Mason of high standing, 
" declared to him, that Morgan must be put out of the 
" way !" and again — " at Lockport, three months after the 
" outrage, Bruce was elected Scribe of the Chapter upon the 
" express ground that he was entitled to the office from his 
" exertions in the case of Morgan ! — Col. King was elected 

* A very high mason, but who renounced the iiistilution. — See his 
book eiitillcd " Light on Masonry." 



39 

" and installed High Priest of the Chapter at Lewiston, at the 
" moment when he held Morgan a prisoner, in a solitary cell 
" seven miles distant [Fort Niagara] and had murder in his 
" heart J" — and in addition to this shocking account we find 
that tiie prison, the " solitary cell" of a free citizen of the 
United States, is Fort JViagara J having the violated flag of 
the United States flying over the Fort ! — and to whom is he 
a prisoner? — to a band of masonic ruffians, for they were en- 
titled to no better name — and what was his crime ? why, 
communicating the secrets of freemasonry ! — Col. Stone goes 
on to say " Five months after the perpetration of the crime, 
" the Grand Cliapter rejected a proposition offering a reward 
" of one thousand dollars for the discovery and apprehension 
" of the authors of it ; while on the other hand, they appro- 
" priated a like sum of one thousand dollars under the pre- 
" text of unspecified charitij, but in fact to be used for the 
" aid, comfort and assistance of the criminals ! 

" Hovy'ard, one of the murderers by his own confession, 
" was cherished by certain of the masons of this city : [New 
" York] He was kept in concealment from the ofiicers of jus- 
" tice ! funds were raised for him ! and he was finally smug- 
" gled across Long Island, and put on board one of the foreign 
" packets oft' Gravesend or Coney Island." — In this manner 
does Col. Stone go on, showing conclusively that whole 
Chapters and Lodges were implicated in the outrage, — and 
is it not strange, passing strange, that we see eftbrts now 
made to revive the murderous institution ? We consider the 
recent Masonic Celebration at Portsmouth as an effort, which 
we trust will be put down by the united voice of a religious 
and political people. — We regret being compelled to with- 
hold any of the judicious and able remarks of Col. Stone, but 
must refer the reader to the volume of Letters addressed as 
suggested to the Hon. John Q. Adams — indeed, after giving 
indubitable evidence of the criminality of Lodges and Chap- 



40 

TERS, he says " There has never been uttered from the walls 
" of either Lodge or Chapter, from the highest to the low- 
" est, an expression of real censure or honest indignation, 
" against any individual, however clearly it may have been 
"known that he was engaged in depriving a Free Citizen 
«'0F HIS LiBERTy, AND PUTTING HIM TO DEATH 
•• IN COLD BLOOD." 

We now, after the foregoing shocking detail, appeal to 
every citizen of our beloved country — how and in what man- 
ner can tlie recent Masonic celebration at Portsmouth be 
viewed, taken politically, morally or religiously? Can it be 
viewed in any other light, where not beclouded or obscured 
by ignorance, than as what is called particips criminis or a 
participation in all the outrages and murder committed on 
the person of William Morgan — the aid, assistance and pro- 
tection of his murderers ? — It is a plain question and address- 
ed to every man of feeling or humanity. 

Col. Stone, in the spirit of patriotism by which he was ani- 
mated, proceeds to show that Freemasonry ought to be 
ABOLISHED, and among other reasons he states that " The 
" garments of masonry are stained with blood ! — an American 
" citizen has been sacrificed upon its altar, for no breach of 
" the civil laws of the Land, but only for a violation of his 
" masonic obligations ! what has once happened may happen 
" again : and the only safe and secure disposition of the sub- 
" ject is to abandon it and blot it out forever !" — Again, " The 
" power of masonry has proved too strong for the arm of the 
" civil law ! The cry which earth sends up to Heaven, when 
"her bosom is stained with the blood of a murdered son, sel- 
" dom fails to ensure just retribution from the hands of her 
" children ; but in this instance it has failed ! Ought then" 
he continues " an institution which has exercised such power 
" to exist in a free country ? 

" The crime that has been committed in the name of the 
" institution was not perpetrated, as it has been contended. 



41 

" by ignorant fanatics, but tlie conspiracy embraced much of 
" the intelligence and respectability of that enlightened por- 
"tiiin of the country and the muhderers themselves men 
"or NO MEAM CONSIDERATION' 1" — Again, " Tile institution 
" cannot vindicate ifselt from the stigma of this outrage. — On 
*' the contrary, by the course they have taken, since it was 
"perpetrated, both the Guand Lodge and Grand Chapter 
" have in fact assumed the respnnsibilily of tne transaction ! 
" For aught that these governing bodies have done, the con- 
" victs in that outrage are as good masons, standing Recti in 
" curia, as any of us!" — then follows the question which may 
be pertinently addressed to those individuals, who as masonic 
members attended the Portsmouth Celebration, but more es- 
pecially to K. iM. F. Wells, " Ought men of principle and 
" virtue to sustain such an institution, or remain connected 
" with it f" — Once more, " Hie conduct of masons on the tri- 
" als at the west, is a sufficient cause for the abandonment. 
" Grand Jurors were false to their oaths — to truly present! 
" If'itnesfies upon trial were false to their oaths — to truly 
" testily ! Petit Jurors were false to their oaths — to truly 
" try ! Witnesses in some instances spurned the authority of 
" the Court, and refused to testify; and in other instances to 
" be sworn ! Sheriffs corruptly returned partial Grand Ju- 
" rors .'" — What a complication of wickedness, — yet such is 
only a partial account given by Col. Stone, who was not bare- 
ly a mason, but one of high standing and consequently was 
perfectly acquainted with the masonic institution — and from 
his being the editor of a widely spread paper, which IkhI ex- 
tensive exchanges, giving him the means of knowing every 
thing regarding the aUluction anil murder of \\'illiani Moi- 
gan ! but we repeat, whoever is desirous of knowing the na- 
ture, the nonsense, and the nioial obliquity of the institution, 
let him read Col. Stone's Letters, 49 in number, to the Hon. 
John Q. Adam?. 

6 



42 

The following remarks on the celebration at Portsmouth 
are from the Lynn Record of June SO. 

" The Freemasons celebrated the festival of St. Jolin. as 
they call it, on Thursday last, the !34th inst. at Portsmouth, 
N. H. We could hardly have believed, that a sufficient num- 
ber of rational beings, would have been found in this enliglit- 
ened age, to go on pilgrimage to perform this worse than 
senseless idolatry — this worship of the vile Juggernaut, the 
old exploded and disgraced mummery ef Freemasonry. We 
read the notice of such a meeting without marvel, it is true, 
because there will be a few, here and there one, incapable of 
gaining notice otherwise, who arrive to higli lionors in the 
Masonic ranks, and cannot forego tlie pleasures, the honors, 
which these occasions bring, and wliich they can no where 
else enjoy — the honor of being Great, Grand, Royal, Most 
Excellent, Most Worshipful, &c. But we did not suppose 
that any considerable number of decent men would at this day 
risk their reputation for common sense by being seen with the 
little aprons on, marching through the dust in procession. 

" The Portsmouth Journal in giving an account of this cel- 
ebration, says : — ' It was well attended by the Fraternity from 
our own and from the neighboring States. Between two and 
three hundred brethren were in attendance. Tiie procession 
moved at about 11 o'clock, to the music of the Newburyport 
Brass Band, from Masonic Hall through the principal streets 
to the North Church, where, after appropriate introductory 
services, [pray what were they ? — being blinded, haltered and 
stripped r] an able and truly eloquent address was delivered 
by Rev. E. M. P. Wells of Boston, which was priiicipally 
conQned to the morale of Masonry. He exhibited the Insti- 
tution as one of the soundest moral tendency and as incul- 
cating the soundest and most liberal principles of government.' 

" So the Rev. E. M. P. Wells of Boston, after having gone 
through the initiatory mummery of Freemasonry— the inde- 



43 

cent ceremonies, and having taken the horrid and blasphem- 
ous oaths, and having known as one of the legitimate effects 
of these hoirid oaths, the deatli of William Morgan, is not 
ashamed to tramp off to Portsmouth, and stripping off his 
priestly robe, invest himself in the ridiculous costume of the 
craft, march • through the principal streets to the North 
Cliurch'— yes, to the Church ; — a fine occasion fur entering 
the sanctuarj, truly ! where no antislavery lecturer could 
gain admittance. 

" The Journal tells us that this very 'able and truly elo- 
quent address' of the Rev. Brother E. M. P. Wells, ' was 
principally confined to the morale of Masonry.' The moral 
of being hoodwinked, divested of clothing, and draggeil about 
the lodge room, a laughing stock, to be jeered and insulted by 
the gaping, vulgar throng ; ihe moral of swearing to ' extri- 
cate a brother from difficulty, whether he be right or wrong, 
in all cases whatever, murder and treason not excepted !' — 
The moral of swearing that ' you will not violate the chastity 
of a Master Mason's wife, sister or daughter, knowing her to 
be such ." 

" 0, Rev. Brother E. M. P. Wells, think of these things,— 
•Evil communications corrupt good morals,' — 'Ye cannot 
serve God and Mammon.' And when you shall have thrown 
off the gaudy trappings of Freemasonry, and assumed the sa- 
cerdotal robe, and have entered the church and the sacred 
desk, to expound, not the morale of Freemasonry, but the 
Word of God, reflect, we beseech thee, that ' for all these 
things God will call thee into judgement.' He will call thee 
to ' render an account of thy stewardship.' " 

To show the difference between what we consider a true 
minister of the Gospel, and one who is not, we insert the Re- 
nunciation of Freemasonry made by the Rev. Joseph S. 
Christmas, who, it seems, was in a double sense literally 
taken in, in the British Provinces. It was originally publish- 



44 

ed ill the New York Investigator, tiie editor of vviiich remarks 
that it " is nut the less valuable for havjng been one of the lat- 
est acts of life ; it is in truth his dying testimovij against 
false and wicked Freemasonry, and is entitled to the highest 
regard, as coming from a man, sincere and candid, learned 
and pious." 

RENUNCIATION. 

Oh my soul ! come not thou into their secret, unto their assembl/ 
mine honor be not thou united. — Gen. xlix. 6. 

To (lie Editor of the Investigator. 

Sin, 

I w;is much surprised a few daj's since, upon beina; inform- 
ed by a friend that my name liiui been mentioned in your 
paper, and held up to the public as one of those clergymen 
^vill) still continue in the fellowship of Freemasonry. Al- 
though mortilied by such an use of my name I do not regret 
that I I'.ave been thus reminded of my duty. 1 am a mason, 
and it is due to tuyself to explain the extent of my connexion 
with the fraternity, and the occasion of my remissness in not 
havinn- earlier disavowed that connexion. 

About five years since, in a season of comparative youth, 
when I Ind but just passed my minority, I made application 
for admission to a lodge. For this mis-step, for such 1 now 
deem it, I miglit oU'er some apologies, such as that the moral 
and Chiistian character of masonry had not been then to my 
knowledge called in queslion, that many of my most estecm- 
eil friends, and worthy members of the congregation of which 
1 then had charge, and most of the Protestant ministers 
where I then lesided were masons, but now I feel that ! did 
wrong in assuming the unqualified obligations of an institution 
of whose inteiior I knew nothing. 1 was initiated into the 
order, took the Apprentice's Degree, and never afterwards 
enteied a l.iiv;;e, (u' gave or received a masonic signal. 

Through the subsequent tiials and duties of several years, 
masonry scarcely entered my mind, nor was it till of late 
that I have been convinced of the intrinsic evil of the insti- 
tution ; nor did I then feel it my duty to renounce, first, be- 
caise I concluded from my slight connexion with the lodge, 
that I had but little to renounce, and secondly, because that 



46 

rnnnesion boing with a lod^e in a province of the British 
Empire, I supposed it not known in this country, and (here- 
fore not injurious by way of example. But 1 was mistaken; 
and as I have been embhizoned before the public as a Free- 
mason, [a trick always pursued by (he craft, when a man of 
distinction is cajoled into it,] neither modesty nor du(y re- 
cniire anv apology for the publicity with which I wipe the 
stain of masonry from my conscience as a man, and from my 
office as a M>inister of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Sliould any member of the fraternity say that the opinion 
of one who has made so little progress in (he craft is nothing 
worth ; I reply that the pretensions to secrecy still mnintain- 
ed on the part of the institution are false, and can be proved 
so by the concentrated daylight of the manifold testimony 
which no reasonable man can deny. My opinion may be 
nothing worth, but this at least will be gained ; — no man shall 
henceforth put me in the catalogue of clergymen abetting 
masonry. • 

It is not for me to explain how it is, that many upright, and 
honorable, and conscientious, and pious men are still found 
within (he inclosure of the mystic tie. I would hope that 
many of them are ignorant of the mysteries of iniqui(y which 
exist in the liigher degrees, and that others still preserve si- 
lence from wrong views of Christian casuistry, and have yet 
to learn that sinful oaths like that of King Herod bind to 
nothing but repentance, and fruits meet for repentance. Ex- 
plain their conduct as you will, it is enough for me to know 
in ascertaining my duty, that masonry is ttseless, containing 
no motives to tluty nor sanctions to morality paramount to 
Christianity ; abounding in no results of benevolence which 
are not tenfold counterbalanced by the necessary expenses, 
and incidental temptations of the system ; imparting no use- 
ful knowledge unless a few cabalistic words and traditionary 
fables be useful knowledge. It is enough for me to know 
that masonry is /n/se in its pretensions to antiquity, may be 
proved so, not only by the entire absence of documentary tes- 
timony, but (he internal evidence of imposture palpable to 
every linguist and biblical scholar. It is enough for me to know 
that masonry is anti-christian and imi)ious ; an assertion 
which may be verified by a reference to the niiture and fre- 
quency of the oaths; to the rejection of a Mediator liom its 
worship ; to the blasphemous titles which in certain degrees 



46 

are given to its officers; to the ludicrous applicntinn often 
ttiaile of scriptural lan:;uage ; to the profane iiiti-oduction of 
sacramental ceremonies, and to the principal duty of the 
lodge, which is, in every degree, the dramatic perfumiance of 
what I can describe by no other name than a fnrcp, f lundeJ 
on scriptui-al history, whose serio-comic ertcct indeed betrays 
that no master in the histrionic art was engaged in its com- 
position. For these, and other reasons, I cannot but consiiler 
speculative masonry as one of the " unfruitlul works of dark- 
ress," with which a high authority — higher than all the un- 
lawful oaths of the cral't, bids me " have no fellowsliip, but 
rather to reprove them." And when that time which I conti- 
dontl Y expect shall arrive, when the word of Gt)l) shall grow 
niinhlily and prevail, we shall see a repetition of what occur- 
red eighteen centuries since in the city of Diana ol the Ephe- 
sians. " And many that believed came and coidessed, and 
showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious 
arts brought their books together and burned tlieiii before all 
men ; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty 
thousand pieces of silver." Acts xi.v. 18, 19. 

If these remarks should meet the eye of any follower of the 
Redeemer who still worships at the altar of masonry, 1 beg 
him once more to consider whether imposed on by the mock 
solemnities of the lodge and the pompous pretensions of the 
craft, he is not ically attempting to efti-'ct a concord between 
Christ and Belial ; and whether he does not owe it to the 
souls of masons, to tlie honor of the church of Christ, and to 
the good of mankind, to come out and be separate. 

JOSEPH S. CHRISIMAS. 
Pastor (if the ISuwery Fresbyiefian Cluirch. 

JVetfc- York, March 2, 1830. 

Such is the diRerence between the Rev. Joseph S. Christ- 
mas, and E. M. 1'. ff'ells, the Masonic Orator ! 

Altliou''h many, very many are the documents, that could 
be produced exhibiting the moral deformity of Freemasonry, 
enough to fill volumes, we shall conclude with the following 
Letter from the Hon. John Q. Adams to Mr. James More- 
bead, Editor of the Mercer Luminary. 



47 



Washington, Dec. 23, 18321 
^Jr. James Morehead, J^Iercer, Pa. 

SlB, 

Mr. Ranks, the worthy Representative of your district, de- 
livered to me your friendly letter of the 26th of last month. — 
I have since the commencement of the session of Congress, 
regularly received the numbers of the Mercer Luminary, and 
have observed with pleasure tlie zeal and assiduity with which 
it disseminates the Light of Antimasonry. — To that cause I 
am devoted, because 1 believe it to be the cause of pure 
morals and of truth. Until the murder of Morgan I had ve- 
ry little knowledge of the institution of Freemasonry, except 
as an occasional witness of its childish pageantry, and the 
mock solemnity of its processions. These 1 believed to be 
harmless, and I gave willing credit to their boastful profes- 
sions of benevolence and charity. Very soon after the Mor- 
gan catastrophe, however, the masonic obligations were dis- 
closed to me in the escape of Col. William King, from the 
pursuit of justice, in the territory of Arkansas. I saw their 
operation, without being able to punish the oft'ender or even 
judicially to authenticate the oftence. — King escaped by the 
connivance of masonic obligations paramount to the laws of 
the land. He re-appeared afterwards upon the theatre of his 
guilt; and as you know, died suddenly, on t!ie disclosing of 
facts which he had flattered himself were hidden from every 
person under the canopy of Heaven, without the pale of ma- 
sonic oaths and penalties. — Other evidences of the practical 
effect of masonic obligations soon revealed themselves to me 
in the forms of secret slander and perjury. But of the mul- 
titude of atrocious crimes committed first in the conspiracy 
which terminated in the murder of ^Morgan, and fur five years 
afterwards in baffling and defeating the Laws of the State in 
their efforts to bring the murderers to justice, 1 had a very 
imperfect idea till the publication of Col. Stone's Book. 



48 

There remained yet, not any reasonable doubt, but some 
deficiency of evidence, with regard to the essential, inherent, 
and indelible viciousness of the masonic obligations, in the 
solemn protestations of the adhering masons, tliat those obli- 
gations were falsely represented in the Books of Bernard and 
Avery Allyn. In the bold asseverations that no such oaths, 
obligations and penalties existed, and in reiterated declara- 
tions couched in delusive generalities, that they had never 
taken any oath or obligation inconsistent with their duties to 
their country or their religion ; but always without disclosing 
what iceri' the terms of those which they had taken. The in- 
vestigation by a Committee of the Legislature of Rhode 
Island, finally brought out the obligations often degrees, as 
avowed to be jiractised in the Lodges, Chapters, and Encamp- 
ments of that State. It exposed tlieni in their hideous de- 
formity; and took from the defenders of masonry their last 
refuge of prevarication. 

It was to show them in their naked nature, divested of all 
sophisticated explanations, and all mental equivocations, that 
I wrote the four letters on the Entered Apprentice's Oath, 
which you have republished in the Luminary. I am happy 
that tliey have met your approbation. 
I am with much respect. 

Your friend and fellow-citizen, 

J. Q. ADAMS. 

We cannot conclude without gratifying the curiosity of a 
friend who wishes to be informed, why the 24th of June is 
cclebiuted by masons, as the anniversary of the birth or death, 
for we don't know which, of John the Baptist? Tbe learned 
Orator can no doubt answer the question — and to which we 
append another. — Does the learned Oiator seriously believe 
that John the Baptist ever heard or knew any thing of Free- 
masonry, an institution that had no existence for more than 
1600 jears after his death ?— We ask his answer. 



